Large area wounds, such as those made on a donor for a skin graft or the wounds to which the skin graft is applied on the patient and small second-degree burn wounds, present considerable problems in the application of surgical dressings to such wounds. These wounds must be protected against bacterial infection and yet they have a tendency to secrete or exude significant amounts of body fluids which must be removed from the wound site. Frequent changes of dressings on such wounds tend to interfere with the healing of the wounds, and such frequent changes may also increase the possibility that the wound can be contaminated by bacteria transmitted from the nurse or other specialist who is changing the dressing.
These wounds will also heal more rapidly if the wound is maintained under the proper conditions of relative humidity and is kept free of wound exudate.
Attempts to construct wound dressings for the control of the wound exudate and to balance the environmental condition of the wound are numerous. Examples of such dressings are those shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,181,127; 4,231,357; 3,870,041; 3,888,247 and 3,521,631. Although the dressings shown in these references offer some advantages, they have not been totally successful in managing the large area wounds of the type that are discussed above.